Writing in this morning’s Telegraph Sir John Major blames Labour for the fragility of the Union:

"If the Union is now unstable, Labour bears the greatest single responsibility. It scoffed at all warnings and – for partisan advantage – passed a wholly one-sided Devolution Act that gave Scotland all it hoped for with no regard to the effect across the United Kingdom. Once Scotland had its own Parliament (and power to raise taxes), Labour saw no reason to end the Barnett formula that directed to Scotland an unfairly large share of public spending. This Scot-geld is paid by English taxpayers."

He then sets out his programme for putting things right:

End the "fiscal injustice" of England subsidising Scotland over the course of a Parliament;

Resist an English Parliament but consider the establishment of an English Grand Committee of MPs representing English MPs to examine "all purely English legislation";

An alternative to the Grand Committee idea would be a 33% reduction in Scottish MPs from 59 to 40: "This still leaves the "West Lothian" anomaly, but reduces its salience," the former Prime Minister argues.